Engaging students through clean schools can have a positive impact on entire communities. Here’s how.
You already know that clean schools are more attractive to teachers, staff, students, and parents. And you know, as a front line worker at an educational facility, you play a role in that. But did you know clean schools have a much greater impact?
The entire community benefits when students are engaged and committed to going to school and doing well. Just like your janitorial teams perform better when they feel appreciated and cared for, students feel more engaged, and teachers feel more positive in a clean building.
Increase the efficiency of your team, reduce your facility’s costs, and improve results. With Janitorial Manager, all this and more isn’t just a dream; it’s your new reality. Learn more today with a free discovery call!
Clean schools and engaged students: 5 Ways your cleaning team can help
It’s probably not much of a surprise that clean schools are a vital part of the learning process. Nor is it news that most of us likely function better in a clean, welcoming environment. Think about how nice it is to walk into your clean kitchen at home rather than facing a pile of dirty dishes or a stove covered in splashes and spills.
Here’s how your work in maintaining clean schools can help everyone involved.
1. Students Feel Safer. A study published in 2018 by The Journal of School Nursing reports that clean schools can help promote regular attendance because students feel safer in a clean environment. Given that the study also found that 14.4% of students interviewed skipped school in the previous month because they felt unsafe, it’s easy to see the immediate impact of thorough cleaning.
2. Lower Dropout Rate. In the report, How Dirty Is Your Child’s School?, the ISSA points out that “chronically absent students are 7.4 times more likely to drop out of school.” Put that together with the previous data, and you can see the importance of clean schools.
3. More Learning Time. Even for those students who are engaged, cleanliness is essential for keeping kids in the classrooms. The same ISSA report mentioned above notes that approximately 60 million school days are lost each year due to colds and the flu. And since disinfecting surfaces can kill many of the germs and bacteria that cause colds and the flu, your cleaning team can help kids stay in school.
4. Cleaner Air. Your commercial cleaning company or BSC can do a lot to help keep classroom air clean and healthy. Did you know that, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), approximately 1 out of every 10 children has asthma? Indoor dust and chemical cleaners are just two common asthma triggers. However, environmentally-friendly cleaning products may not have the same harsh compounds and could be less likely to cause asthma attacks.
5. More Engaged Teachers. It’s not hard to imagine that clean schools lead to more involved teachers and, thus, more engaged students. Let’s go back to that kitchen for a moment. It’s much easier to cook a nice meal when your kitchen is clean, and you have plenty of counter space. Trying to cook when you don’t have clean pots and pans or there are crumbs everywhere is distracting, to say the least. Teaching isn’t an easy profession, and the more teachers can focus on students rather than dirty floors, stained carpets, and dusty windows, the more quality students get.
The question is, even if we know clean schools benefit students, how do we get there. You can only be in one place at a time, right? And even with several people on a team, you still have to have a systematic approach to cleaning. But there are some ways to make the work more efficient.
QR Codes, like Janitorial Manager’s Scan4Clean, let your team know what tasks are on the list for each room. Plus, a quick scan will tell you (and school administrators) when a space was last cleaned. These QR codes can also help you adjust your schedule if needed. Based on scan reports, you can see how long it takes your team to clean an area (like a restroom). This allows you to adjust your team’s daily workflow and expectations as needed.
Similarly, communication can help immensely in keeping up with the messes that seem to be part of the landscape at schools. With apps like JM Connect, you or school staff can instantly reach any of your on-site team members so that cleaning emergencies are resolved in a timely manner.
At a time when student engagement is more critical than ever, clean schools can play a big role in success. And the work you and your team do has a direct effect on that success.
If you are ready to take your school’s cleaning operation to the next level, take advantage of a free call with Janitorial Manager to see how our software can make your janitorial operation more successful.